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Jun 22, 2015

Principal Software Engineer Interview

Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA

No Offer

Negative Experience

Difficult Interview

Application

I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks – interviewed at Symantec (San Francisco, CA).

Interview

Started with a screening with an HR recruiter followed by a technical phone screen for an hr. After clearing the phone screen process, was invited to attend on-site interview. On-site interview was scheduled for over 5 hrs with 2 people interviewing each hr. Answered some questions with difficulty and some to the interviewer's satisfaction. The interview was terminated by some director mid way in a most unprofessional manner. Do not bother interviewing.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

I applied through college or university. The process took a week – interviewed at Symantec (Los Angeles, CA) in January 2015.

Interview

Apply in University career fair. Onsite interview one week after. There are three person that interview me in total. There is no break between them. Each one takes 45 min and the whole process goes a little bit longer than 2 hours. The last one interview me is the team manager.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

Anonymous Employee

No Offer

Easy Interview

Application

I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day – interviewed at Symantec.

Interview

After the call with a knowledgeable recruiter, spoke with one of the core persons in the team. This was for the first round. First round went well with the basic set of questions. Followed up and heard the team chose another candidate.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

I applied through an employee referral. The process took a week – interviewed at Symantec (Mountain View, CA) in March 2014.

Interview

It was a 5 hours in person interview. One hour for each interviewer. Questions were basic data structures and algorithms. I didn't get the offer because I didn't prepare and I stumbled on a couple of questions or maybe they were too picky on the candidates because the position has been available for a while.

Interview Questions

They did ask something not related to the job but from your resume so make sure you know whatever you put on your resume Answer Question

Principal Software Engineer Interview

Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA

No Offer

Average Interview

Application

interviewed at Symantec (San Francisco, CA) in January 2014.

Interview

Applied through linked-in. Recruiter contacted next day because of my profile matches with their requirement. He explore about my details and project work also gives any idea about compensation what he can offer at the end of the process. then he schedule next telephonic interview with Hiring manager(Dir of Software Dev). Interview with him as very good and positive , he asked mainly about the current project work and few questions related to team management .then he scheduled three interview with him Technical team in Toronto 1. With Senior Dev 2. Dev Manager 3.Architect. questions mainly on .net C# , multithreading and database and design pattern nothing much difficult. All interviews went well, after three days he asked me for an onsite interview at San Francisco office. He scheduled three interview with 1. QA Manager. 2. Senior Manager. 3. Principle Software Manager & Tech lead. 4. Lunch with hiring Manager. They only understand my current architecture of the project and few basic questions like what is abstract class. All interview again went well with very positive experience, only weird thing is that they didn’t asked tough questions and gives me very positive vibes , asking about my visa status and joining time etc. After a week when I asked HR he replied that not selected.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1+ week – interviewed at Symantec (Mountain View, CA) in September 2011.

Interview

After short phone interview Symantec invited me for on-site interview. Booked a hotel in 5 minutes walk distance from the HQ. Had 6 interviews during 2 days with different team leads and technical directors. During the interview it was wide range of questions including technical and abstract questions, code examples, puzzles, whiteboard coding, etc.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

I applied online. The process took 6 weeks – interviewed at Symantec (Lindon, UT) in February 2011.

Interview

I had two telephone interviews each of around 40 minutes and was then invited to an in person interview. The in person interview was conducted by the hiring manager and two senior technical staff where I was asked the normal gambit of software engineering questions and given white board coding exercises. I was also given a written test complete on my own in about 45 minutes. Total on site interview time was around 3 hours.

Negotiation

The hiring manager called me with a verbal offer, slightly over what I had asked for. So I was happy to accept the verbal offer. They then did a full background check, financial, criminal, employment, and education and took up references. Only after the background check was complete did they give me a written offer. So, there was actually three weeks between the verbal and written offers.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

Anonymous Employee in Chennai (India)

No Offer

Negative Experience

Easy Interview

Interview

The interview experience I had with Symantec Chennai is totally negative. 1. The recruiters are not prompt enough. I had a telephonic screen, after which I was told I would be brought to in person loop immediately. After 4 weeks I was brought to in person loop. 2. My in person loop was scheduled to start at 11:00 am. I reported to interview at 10:50 am. The recruiter picked me up from the reception 15 mins after the scheduled start time. After which, I was taken to a conference room where my interviews would happen for the rest of the day. 3. An interviewer showed up in the conference room after 20 mins late, I had a good discussion with him for about 1 hr and more. He said a senior person would be interviewing me next. I started waiting for the senior person, I started feeling hungry, after about 1 hr and more time of wait he said the senior person is OOF. I told him that I was hungry, he took me to cafeteria where I was asked to pay for my own lunch. He gave his number, and asked me to call me after am done with my lunch. I stored his number. After my lunch I called him, he came to cafeteria, and said since the senior person is oof he would have to schedule my interview with him on Skype or I have to show up in person a week after that. I asked him to call me when he formalizes a plan. 4. A day after this, I received a call from the number which I stored in my mobile to call the recruiter in the Symantec cafeteria, I picked up the call with the expectation that I would be let known about my next rounds of interview, but the voice on the other end asked me whether I needed a personal loan :o :o Thus My interview experience with Symantec Chennai is totally negative.

Principal Software Engineer Interview

I applied online. The process took 8 weeks – interviewed at Symantec (Chennai (India)) in August 2014.

Interview

Very unprofessional process. Cleared 4 Technical rounds and got positive feedback and hr explained the offer over phone and confirmed the offer. After two days, again she called up and said one more technical round (no company will do like this), yet i ve attended and cleared that too. Again after one week hr called up and said one more final technical round pending. cleared that also..got positive feed back again and she confirmed the offer saying that only signature is pending.. After that every 2-3 days, whenever i call up and ask for the status, she started telling stories like the guy who has to sign is on leave etc... Finally i realized its a total time waste of 8 weeks, with 6 technical rounds of interview , 2 of those are face-2-face (wasted 2 full days leave).. I will never recommend symantec, if somebody is serious about changing the job with in a time line. Very unprofessional process, and they don't even update you the feedback, unless you call up and chase them.

Interview Questions

Not much difficult questions i could see, the guys who interviewed me were very humble and knowledgeable. Good technical questions, but bad HR process. Answer Question

Glassdoor has 12 interview reports and interview questions from people who interviewed for Principal Software Engineer jobs at Symantec. Interview reviews are posted anonymously by Symantec interview candidates and employees.